Masking Tape - Huzzah!

What can you do with Masking Tape? Plenty! Flypaper, building construction, automobile parts, and best of all, creative innovations in arts and crafts! Some people have made dolls, photo frames, gift wraps, fans, giant props, and wall paper. Check out this awesome website for inspiration http://www.masking-tape.jp/ezawaBlog/

Recently, Seal came across a special masking tape company and is excited to feature them: Kamoi Kakoshi LTD., they are Japan's hottest Masking Tape manufacturer. They have been in the industry for almost a hundred years, and are the first to have made masking tape from rice paper, their "MT brand." It has just the perfect amount of translucency, vivid colors/patterns, and texture.

Probably the coolest thing about their website is their gallery and the Factory Tour Journal:it takes you on a complete picture book explanation of how they produce their masking tape, from raw materials into the final package.

Who knew that their company originally started out in 1923, manufacturing masking tape for construction sites, vehicle paint shops, and flypaper. It wasn't until 2006, that an educator/artist approached them with her book project and requested that they produce a variety of color. And they responded! Now they have over a 35 colors and patterns, you can check out their MT color chart here and their newest products here. You can either shop online or find these cool MT at Japantown, SF at New People the Store or at Kinokuniya Stationery both on Post St.

Inspired? Seal hopes that you are excited as she is about incorporating masking tape into her projects. If you end up making a masking tape project, take a photo and send us a link!

Be creative!

Friday Promo!

To kick off the weekend, Monkey + Seal is pleased to offer 15% off to all blog readers over the weekend! Buy anything between now and 11:59 PM PST at our Etsy shop and enter "PENGUIN" in the "Message to Seller" field and you'll get a Paypal refund for 10% of your pre-tax/pre-shipping purchase!

Samples of our fine wares include:

The ever populare Bad Date Zine Issue 2:

Seal's Swamp Treehouse print:

The award-winning "Delicatessen" illustration:

Monkey's squid print:

Thanks for stopping by and happy shopping!

Low on sleep

Due to crazy schedules, Monkey + Seal have been a bit low on sleep lately. However, we are depriving ourselves of sleep in order to have some amazing stuff for you come this holiday season.

Monkey is currently working on some holiday card designs, as well as organizing a brand-new craft show that we actually got sponsored by Etsy! If you are interested in participating, please contact Monkey at: info [at] monkeyandseal.com. Affordable table prices, an amazing venue, and much much more, we've got it all! Additionally, he's been hard at work doing some quick painting studies to sharpen the saw. Below is a quick scan of one of his 60 minute paintings.

Seal has been burning the midnight oil to come up with a whole slew of new illustrations. Currently she is working on a long (12" x 24") illustration of a modern fashion designer's studio - set in a lavish French interior.

We may have posted this before (the lack of sleep is getting to us), but we now have a fan page on facebook! Please fan us!

Saturday fun+ Etsy wishlist

This Saturday Monkey + Seal had the pleasure of heading out to SPACE gallery on Polk to check out a gallery event put on by SIR, a cutting-edge Japanese-living-in-SF show. If anything, you need to check out their website to hear some awesome music that plays when you load their site. We were super lucky that Seal got handed a flyer by Lavit Sea, who was on hand to display a painting and do some on-the-spot watercolor portraits. Also, one of Monkey's friends AKANE was there with some cool abstract pieces. The drinks were also tasty (although not as strong as Monkey might have liked), and Monkey + Seal had a great time overall.


Earlier in the day, Monkey got the chance to make a quick trip out to the Center for the Book's Roadworks, where Megan from Aviary Press was one of the featured artists. She's starting a new line of letterpressed cards based on strange sea creatures like this Southern Bobtail Squid. Awesome stuff! Monkey also got to run into friends Dutch Door and New Lights! Yay!


Additionally, Monkey was browsing Etsy and found this little gem (shown above) in one of the treasuries. ATHD, the creator of the piece, also has some amazing (and expensive) other pieces of jewelry. If Monkey + Seal were into jewelry (we're sorta minimalist on the jewelry), and had the cash, we'd totally be down with some of her stuff.

Last but not least, Monkey will be working in a collaboration with another designer to do a new screen-printed poster based on typography. We're thinking it'll be one color, edition of 50, perhaps with some color variants thrown in for good measure. More details when we're closer to printing!

New Illustrations by Seal

So Monkey + Seal are giddily excited about their newest investment - an Epson R1900! This giant wide-format printer has awesome new ink technology that boils down to our prints being archival and even clearer and more true to the original paintings. Woo!

Seal has been busily drawing away and has posted some of her newest works on her personal blog, including this graphite drawing:


We've also listed two new items in our shop, including an old-skool comic that Monkey drew four years ago called Percy the Emo Ninja, and a new punk pirate stationery set! Also, you can sign up for the monthly e-newsletter or follow us on twitter easily on the right sidebar! Have a great Friday!

Ever Awesome Etsy - Sept. Edition

So a neat little thing about Etsy is the Treasury. It lets people find neato items and showcase other people's work. Very fabulous, but a bit tough to get. So, Monkey + Seal has decided to do a little (and we do mean little) treasury of their own each week. Here's the first! I hope you enjoy our picks!

This super-cute card by OrangeTwist is definitely a very Monkey + Seal card. Our last year's holiday cards had tons of penguins on it, and they hold a very special place in our hearts, especially since we got to see them at the Penguin Parade in Australia.



This awesome digital print by HidenSeek is super cool. Monkey loves the colors and the neato idea of having the girl's hair as waves. We always think it's a great thing when as an artist, you see something else and say "Damn, I wish I thought of that."



Monkey + Seal are also digging this embroidery of Stalin in a bunny hat (!!) by Little Red Bicycle. All we can say is that this makes us laugh. Great stuff!

We're keeping it short and sweet today. More items next week, and stay tuned for some new products in the Etsy shop!

Monkey got published!

Monkey got his illustration published in the latest issue of Hyphen. You can find the illustration on page 18 for the article "Hollywood Not Bending," about the topic of race and casting in Hollywood. This topic has been at the forefront of the controversy surrounding the movie "The Last Airbender." This was a great pairing as Monkey takes personal interest in this topic (he and Seal both have acting backgrounds as well!). You can find out a lot more about the issue at racebending.com.

While Monkey + Seal is generally very benign, we also have a very distinct social and political side to us. We actually try to infuse as much social commentary as we can in our work (although there is a lot of stuff we just like to create for fun), and we generally try to be subtle about it. But sometimes, a more direct approach is necessary (like this fine item, and these postcards here).